Death to WASL

I love it when a politician immediately does what they said they will do. In this case, new Superintendent of Public Instruction Randy Dorn is wasting no time doing away with the much-despised Washington Assessment of Student Learning. (Say it out loud–WASL. Now you hate it too.)

No changes can be made to the WASL for this school year due to time constraints, Dorn said, but beginning in spring 2010, he plans to replace the WASL with two tests. In grades 3-8, students would take the Measurements of Student Progress (MSP). In high school, they would take something called the High School Proficiency Exams.

One way he plans to cut costs is to offer the tests via computer, rather than just on paper and pencil.

Niki Sullivan over at the TVW blog notices something interesting in the official SPI Question and Answer document, and provides a link to the PDF document using some kind of fancy mouse-over deal. The something interesting is that Dorn is claiming he can change the testing system under existing law and the Legislature can request input.

Sounds fun!

There’s a lot of detail to wade through, of course, and Sullivan slyly notes she is checking into how much requesting Legislators might imagine can be done…

I’ve always said that we needed standardized testing, not only to measure student progress, but also to measure the school’s progress toward educating the students. The testing needs to be uniform and fair, and measure the skills needed with a minumum of subjectivity.

That being said, I don’t care whether we use WASL or some other test. If another test works greater, then fine, use it. But I have objected when some educators decry ANY standardized testing, claiming that it forces them to “teach to the test”. That’s kind of the point. We need such tests because our experiences in the absence of them hasn’t been very impressive.

It’s nice to have students who can be creative, artistic, and show original expression. But they also need a foundation of knowledge in many areas, including math, science, history, geography, etc., some of which unfortunately require basic memorization on at least some level.

I feel like we’ve spent the past forty years or so trying to prevent falling back any further. In the meantime our international trade competitors are cleaning our clocks with well-educated students. On the world stage, an average American high-school student, compared with an average Japanese or Korean high school student, is no competition at all. We may think we are the best players in our local league, but when we get on the field with others we find out that we came from a very small pond indeed.

Give it six months and they’ll be bitching about the Measurements of Student Progress & High School Prodiciency Exams. Cops, electricians, plumbers, nurses, etc., are all required to take standardized tests. Do you wnat one of them working on you or yours without meeting certain minimum requirements?

Re 2: I agree. Teaching to the test may not be as creative as some teachers would like, but it forces disorganized educators to teach some valued subject matter in an organized way that has been pretty much organized for them.

Most industrialized nations, both in Europe and Asia, require annual standardized proficiency tests as a condition of transferring to the next grade level. Failing to pass the test has considerable consequences other than just being “held back”, it usually means you have to change schools, to one which is geared toward a less academically challenging occupation.

A Korean lady in my office thought our SATs were a joke. She took the SATs less than a year after immigrating to the U.S. with her family, and received almost perfect grades (despite having to take the test in English). She said the SATs weren’t any harder than her 10th grade final exams. She also didn’t think college in the U.S. was very hard, compared with Korean high schools.

She now has a daughter in elementary school in the Bellevue school system, and is somewhat dismayed at the slow rate of progress her daughter is making. She is seriously considering whether she whould take her back to Korea, just so that she could get a better education.

The WASL was NEVER about education. It was ALWAYS just an attempt by the right to undermine public education. The GOP hates public education for a simple reason. Every reasonably believable study out there shows that the more education you have, the more likely you are to be a Democrat. They want stupes to join their band of stupes and that’s tough when folks get some education.

I love it when a politician immediately does what they said they will do

then you will love this:

Unveiling ethics rules that he portrayed as the fulfillment of a major campaign promise, Obama said that “the way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable.” The rules are needed, he added, “to help restore faith in government, without which we cannot deliver the changes that we were sent here to make.”

The pay freeze affects the roughly 100 White House employees who make more than $100,000 a year. “Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,” Obama said.

Obama’s new lobbying rules will ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.

The rules also ban lobbyists from giving gifts of any size to any member of his administration. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the ban would include the traditional “previous relationships” clause, allowing gifts from friends or associates with which an employee comes in with strong ties.

The new rules also stipulate that anyone who leaves his administration cannot try to influence former friends and colleagues for at least two years. Obama is requiring all staff to attend to an ethics briefing like one he said he attended last week.

Obama called the rules tighter “than under any other administration in history.” They followed pledges during his campaign to be strict about the influence of lobbyists in his White House.

“The new rules on lobbying alone, no matter how tough, are not enough to fix a broken system in Washington,” he said. “That’s why I’m also setting rules that govern not just lobbyists but all those who have been selected to serve in my administration.”

‘Too much secrecy’ In an attempt to deliver on pledges of a transparent government, Obama said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act. He said he was directing agencies that vet requests for information to err on the side of making information public — not to look for reasons to legally withhold it — an alteration to the traditional standard of evaluation.

Just because a government agency has the legal power to keep information private does not mean that it should, Obama said. Reporters and public-interest groups often make use of the law to explore how and why government decisions were made; they are often stymied as agencies claim legal exemptions to the law.

“For a long time now, there’s been too much secrecy in this city,” Obama said.

There are standardized tests, and there are standardized tests. There used to be something called the “Washington State Pre-College Test” which was required (and in fact, took the place of the SAT) for high-school seniors applying to any state-run colleges. It was basically pretty simple, but the “analysis” of the scores somehow turned out so that a lot of my classmates who went on to become doctors, lawyers and rocket scientists were told they were best suited for careers in agriculture.

1. Kenneth Blackwell (the former Ohio Secty of State who in the 1984 administered an effective (illegal) caging campaign, and re-allocated voting resources to discourage voting in Democratic precincts by hours-long lines to vote), and ordered polls to close their doors shutting out voters already in line in violation of Ohio state law), is among those seeking the Chairmanship of the Republican Party.

2. Republicans are seeking ways to adopt and co-opt Obama’s messages of “hope”, “change”, and empowerment (“Yes we Can!”), which is not too surprising to us in Washington State, where the Republican candidate for governor tried to use “…For a Change” as his campaign theme.

3. But in the view of one Republican pollster and media consultant, “…effectively adopting language relies on political credibility….” Credibility is something the Republicans are sorely lacking at the present time.

In other words, once the Republicans have a chance to re-organize, expect and be prepared for an aggressive media and public relations campaign, emulating that of Newt Gingrich in the 1990’s, which will be linguistically sophisticated but structurally bankrupt.

The best way to counter this is to govern effectively and ethically, eschewing ideology to pragmatism, and then reminding voters that they’ve heard it all before from the Republicans, and we all know what happened when we gave them unfettered government control.

ArtFart @ 8: “a lot of my classmates who went on to become doctors, lawyers and rocket scientists were told they were best suited for careers in agriculture.”

Well, I had my own problems with a High School counselor, who didn’t bother to sit down with me except once toward the end of my Junior year. At that time she advised me that I shouldn’t plan to attend college under any circumstances, and I should choose a career accordingly.

Of course, she was only looking at the grades from half a year’s school work, which happened to coincide with the period after my father had died after an extended illness, and I had started working 20 hours per week on top of school, scouting, swimming, and football in order to help support the family budget.

And although she mentioned my ACT scores in math (a little below average), she never mentioned my scores in the reading and writing sections, which were in the top 5%.

After my first quarter in college I mailed her a copy of my G.P.A. – 4.0 in my first quarter. I went on to graduate with high honors, and I also earned a graduate degree with pretty respectable grades (about the middle of my class in graduate school).

So I’d be among the first to advise students that although test scores are important measures of progress, they (and your advisors) don’t dictate your future.

WASL is a flawed test that relies on subjective grading by human graders whose scoring can different. This means two students who give exactly the same answers can get different scores depending on who graded them. That’s not an acceptable way to determine advancement or graduation, nor is it a valid way to measure school performance.

@10 Re: Kenneth Blackwell (or someone like him) possibly becoming the next chairman of the GOP:

Will they never learn? The party leadership marched even further to the right in last year’s campaign (probably dragging a grudging and doubtful John McCain along with them) and got throroughly spanked at the polls for their trouble! News flash! “Joe Beer Belly America” finally figured out that no matter how far he digs into the neocon mountain of shit, there ain’t gonna be no pony!

There’s a sad correspondence here to the leaders of Hamas (whoever’s left of them) dragging themselves out of the rubble of Gaza and claiming a great victory.

About the most dangerous thing for politicians to do is to come to believe their own bullshit.

Are we sure we need this other test(s)? I mean, I can tell you right now that the kids in my ‘hood (Gig Harbor) will score higher than the kids in Goldy’s ‘hood.

There’s plenty of data out there on barriers to learning for kids. The test(s) wont address those barriers other than maybe pointing out that the kid everyone knew was smart or behind is smart or behind.

WASL was and is a false issue. As others have said, testing is normal around the world. Only in the US is testing controversial. The reason for that controversy are simple:

ONLY the US treats schools teachers as non-professionals.

Why are teachers opposed to “teaching to the test?” I believe they are serious bu the reason this even arises is that the school system and the public regards school teachers with about the same respect we pay to dental technicians or assembly line workers. We do not regard teachers as professionals and do nto EXPECT them to be capable of making wise choices.

WASL is part and parcel of a more geenral anti-professionalism movement. Teacher’s unions oppose merit pay or even differential pay based on teacher’s having knowledge of needed fields. When did anyone last list “High School English Teacher” in their CV as evidence of the ability to write? Would I hire a High School Chemistry teacher as a lab technician?

@16: If we professionalize teaching – we would have to get rid of most of the research faculty at the UW who claim to be teachers – but in fact are researchers and are judged primarily on research.

Actually, the WASL is a very flawed test – especially the Math part. Math tests in most of the US and in other parts of the world don’t give most of the credit for expalining the answer – they give credit for Getting the answer.

The Math education in this state STINKS and some of the math teachers who support this like the “spiral” curriculum becuase it keeps the students from getting bored too much (except the high end students). In fact, the students don’t poractice math enough. We get students who don’t know basic algebra, manipulation of equations, how to multiply or what to do with a fraction. Take the calculators away, take the lousy textbooks away, take the lousy WASL away and GET BACK TO BASICS.

First let me deal with your asinine comment about the UW. The “job” of UW faculty is not and damn well better not be to be teachers. You want a trade school, go to community college. At the level of the UW, them job of the faculty is to make learning possible. That means we have to (and do) hold our faculty to high intellectual standards.

As a Medical School professor, we are faced with this dilemma all the time. There are extensive efforts to assure that faculty can “teach.” However, we also provide our students with contact with outstanding physicians, many of us rated at the top of our professions world wide.

Let me give you one, small example. Mary Claire King, Professor of Genome Sciences, discovered the breast cancer gene. She has also pioneered in what might be called the genomic civil rights movement by using her skills to unravel the problem of the people lost to their families during Argentina’s fascist era. She is a marvelous speaker as well.

Finally, MCK is tenured .. in her case not be State funds but by an endowment from Disney. So tell me Citizen CNR, who gets the better deal .. a medical student who learns genetics from Dr. K or a student who learns genetics at Oregon? (Hint: the total cost per student at BOTH schools, tuition plus state expenditures, is the same.)

Mary Claire is NOT an unusual example at the UW nor is this quality limited to the sciences. Galya Diment, our wonderful Chair of Slavic Languages, is not just a teacher she has an awesome love for and knowledge of both Slavic and classical Greek literature. By the way, you and I pay her salary. I do understand she is a good teacher but the value she adds to our students’ experiences is inestimable.

There ARE examples of the “teaching” mentality here too. I personally think that Bothell and Tacoma are horrible wastes of my tax money BECAUSE they focus on teaching rather than on providing the kind of environment that makes the Seattle campus an opportunity, at the price of state tuition, to get an education as good as I got at Harvard.

Obviously the grade schools and the secondary schools are not the UW. However, there ARE examples where PRIVATE schools hire outstanding people tot teach and do so at pay rates often BELOW those of the public schools.

How do they do this? They offer recognition for the knowledge a teacher has and incentives for performance. I can offer one such example. A friend of ours with a great love of history taught in a Seattle private school. He chose this NOT for the money, initially at least he was not paid well, but for the opportunity to teach and to be respected for his knowledge. This friend, now deceased, won the award as the outstanding secondary school history teacher in the US and has created an amazing tradition in the school where he taught.

I know teachers as good as my friend who have taught in the SPS. They received NO recognition for their achievements and were given the Hobson’s choice of becoming administrators if they wanted an increase in pay.

SJ @ 21: Interesting post. Reminds me of a story told about the former U.W. rowing coach Erickson by his rowers. They were invited to the Henley Regatta in England, perhaps the most prestigious and historic venue for rowing outside of the Olympics.

The day before their race, they were nervous, and the captains sent word to Erickson that they needed some sort of encouragment, a few words from him might help. So Erickson told them to assemble in one of the hotel rooms and he would be by at the appointed hour to speak to them.

At the appointed time, the rowers were all essembled, and in walks Erickson. He glowers at them. “You just don’t get it!” he shouts. “My job is to give you the opportunity! This is the opportunity! You are here! What you make of it is entirely up to you!!!!”. He turned around and left the room. That was it, the end of the “pep talk”.

Continuation of # 23: So in a university setting, the faculty and facilities made available to the student is the “opportunity”. What they make of that opportunity is up to them.

(By the way – in Japan the primary function of a University isn’t to learn a subject. It is to form a network of friends and aquantances which will facilitate the student’s career, and the business of the company they join, in the future. In that respect, it’s similar to the Ivy League of old.)

You asked a question – who gets the better deal if professors are promoted and paid on the basis of research and not on their teaching.

The answer is – not always the students.

Having GONE to the UW as a graduate stuent in the school of medicine and having HAD some of these “great” scientists who are great teachers and others who are the worst teachers in the world but have egos the size of Mt. Rainier, I can definitively state that the teaching is ERRATIC. Some great prof’s and some terrible profs with huge egos that couldn’t teach their way out of a paper bag. REputation is one thing – but when I sent my kid off to college – I was glad he did not go undergrad to UW. In stead, he went to a small liberal arts college that specializes in teaching and learning and doesn’t have TAs in most of the classes and a professor with a huge ego that you never see or that can’t teach. Teaching is a skill and an avocation. Research is a skill and an avocation – they don’t always mesh.

And the UW is an undergraduate institution and it’s job sure as hell is to teach. Tell that to the 20K undergrad students who go there! Simply being a Nobel prize winner and sitting in a class doesn’t cut it. The UW is there to also provide an education – saying something so stupid as this:

I personally think that Bothell and Tacoma are horrible wastes of my tax money BECAUSE they focus on teaching rather than on providing the kind of environment that makes the Seattle campus an opportunity, at the price of state tuition, to get an education as good as I got at Harvard

– shows that you really understand research – but have NO clue about teaching and learning.

Again, how does a nobel prize winner just “being there” help the majority of UW undergrads to learn?

I agree that the UW plays an important role as a research institution. But being a great researcher does not necessarily make one a great teacher. And having great research opportunities matters very little to the majority of UW undergrads (it matters a great deal to a few students). The students are taking classes to learn things – not to be within a proximal distance of some great scientist.

The missions UWT, Evergeen* and Eastern are to teach place bound student. Replace the word “teach” with whatever you like, but we need to provide that service to place bound student.

*Before the righties see the word Evergreen and go all ga-ga it should be noted that the vast majority of Evergreen students come from Thurston and Pierce Counties and that at least one past president of the WA College Republicans was an Evergreen student.

Evergreen, Bellingham, etc are GREAT schools .. not just for place bound students but for any one. Evergreen, BTW already does use UW faculty as part of their contract education model.

UWT is no Evergreen. UWT is an effort by the UW to assuage local pols who want to spend money in Tacoma . Instead of providing what Tacoma place bound kids need, these pols are degrading the UW degree by turning the degree into a post Community College diploma finishing mill. This serves no one well.

While it IS true that we need to serve students at many locals, the resources of a research University can not be duplicated by printing UW diplomas.

FWIW, I beleive those dollars would be MUCH better spent on creating more state colleges, perhaps as add ons to the community colleges, AND then looking for ways we can use UW resources to strengthn the local offerings. This would make great use of our highly successful state college system and expand that systems offerings.

A very good example of the nuttiness of this has been the discussion of adding yet one more UW shell to Everett. Everett NEEDS higher ed, but it would make vastly more sense to locate a polytechnical state college there than to build yet another academic fantasy.

Those kids who need a UW level experience, however, need to be at UW or WSU unless the tax payers want to come up with a few billions per new campus.

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